In the field of vehicle control in recent years, it has spread to exercise idling reduction control with a principal object of improvement of fuel efficiency and reduction of exhaust gas. In the idling reduction control, the engine is stopped temporarily during stopping or parking of a vehicle or waiting for a traffic light change, and then the engine is re-started when an accelerator pedal is depressed, as described in, for example, PTL 1.
Furthermore, control of stopping an engine during traveling temporarily and then restarting the engine (hereafter referred to as traveling idling reduction control) is also formerly known.
In the conventional traveling idling reduction control, the engine is usually stopped when the driver depresses a brake pedal and the velocity of the own vehicle has become a predetermined velocity or less (low velocity). When the driver has released the brake pedal, the engine is restarted.
PTL 2 discloses control of stopping an engine temporarily when the driving and traveling state of a vehicle satisfies predetermined conditions during traveling and of restarting the engine by utilizing kinetic energy of the vehicle when the driving and traveling state of the vehicle has ceased to satisfy the conditions.